


A Cruel Twist of Fate

by fightthefry



Series: Tangled: The Series Works| by fightthefry [1]
Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Past Older! Red/ Older! Varian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-19 22:01:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20216968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fightthefry/pseuds/fightthefry
Summary: Old roots protect them from the morbid and disturbed truth; Zhan Tiri has won, Corona has fallen.Rapunzel collapses, hair fading back to blonde, trapped in a future that should never have existed.





	A Cruel Twist of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> This work is canon divergence - it ignores everything after Rapunzel and the Great Tree, S2 Ep14. I would really appreciate feedback!!!

Vines wrapped around every crevice and cretin that resided within the Great Tree, green cords hissing and tightening their coils as the light from her torch grew ever closer. Flora rattled with anticipation, however, perhaps it was their hankering for fear that caused them to edge nearer to the path, their heads craning around the many corners in hopes of seeing the only sun they would ever glance at, and so they bow as she walks and they bite at her heels, desperately trying to grasp her and keep her in their depths.

The light from her hair rebounded only off the shined plates of the armour that march close to her, a dozen fractures of glistening hope that pierce and entice the shyer creatures. A lumbering oak swaddled in fake gold and stolen fabrics blocks some of the fine rays of salvation, his great figure creating a shadow in the backdrop behind him that acts as a fine house for the many leaves and numerous teeth. And, even closer to the sun, stands a man - a twig compared to the great oak, but threatening to the weeds nonetheless - whose face smiles unshaven and painted in an unapologetic mask of sarcasm and nonchalance. 

With the silver woman gone - oh how lucky they were! - the inner depths of the Great Tree trembled with excitement and shook with the glee that came only with a significant lack of boredom. The sun and her guards edged ever further into the bosom of destiny, the confines of the walls noticeable as air sunk to the ground in defeat; it had nowhere to escape to. 

The puzzle of the Great Tree was unmistakeably one of the greatest of all time - hence the name 'Great Tree', which referred not only to its sizeable conundrum, but also her towering size - and had puzzled specialists in the field for many a millennia, for it was terribly old.

The silver woman especially had seemed quite determined to find out what lay beneath the harsh bark and twisting branches, however, to no prevail! since she too had long since given up her search. It seems, too, that she had given on her hope, considering she let the illuminous Sundrop dwell alone - well, near alone, and near unarmed. It appears she had also let the power of her sword - a power granted by Destiny, the same Destiny that could swiftly take the life out from under your feet, mind you - go to her head, as she had neglected to warn the Sundrop of the curses of her Curse, including a very potent yet suspicious incantation that resided on one of the many walls of the Tree.

So, it was of no surprise that whilst the Sundrop wandered further away from time and reality, the silver woman had been beside herself with worry and guilt, the years overtaking her as she begged in frantic attempts to regain her only hope. They only scratched the surface of the Sundrop's prison.

The Sundrop's infamous incantation had not worked for her in a substantial and noticeable amount of time, and so with the snake and the apple and the tree in place, it only made sense that she would fall to the temptation of power that lay so sweet before her. The roll of her tongue as she decayed time had warmed the coldest regions of the Tree, the withering words sending a wave of destruction out over the land. Such omnipotence concentrated in such a weak form was pitiful, really, but humans were remarkably easy to lead. Promises of wealth, threats to their health. It was rather wonderous that the Sundrop had been born to this impressionable princess, yes, rather wonderous indeed. The Great Tree hardly had to do any work to send her plan into motion.

And it was in motion, oh yes, it was moving rather quickly now. The hands of time spun with such force that it drove the winds to a speed that would decimate houses, and spin into uncontrollable bouts of panic that would devastate the entirety of its surrounding land.

And all the while, the Sundrop talked with uncontained joy, bouncing as she walked. Little did she know that she was jumping on the foundations of the future, the new future. One without her.

-

-

-

"Do you even have any idea where we're going, Cass-aaan-dra?" Eugene drawled, his legs shaking slightly with the weight of their bags, his eyes heavy with lack of sleep and from the second-hand exhaustion that came with watching Rapunzel's boundless energy.

Cassandra scowled, not looking back at the incorrigible annoyance, and stopped dead in her unguided tracks, "well, Eugene, I'm guessing we're going down and forwards."

"Yes, but I'm fairly sure that we're not supposed to be going down and forwards, since we have been going down since we entered this darned tree!"

Rapunzel, her hair still dimmed slightly from her prior state of, well, destruction, smiled at her friend and boyfriend lovingly, showing just the right amount of endless love and tired frustration that only Rapunzel could manage. She brushed a strand of blonde locks behind her ear, and sighed with resigned determination, eyes closed and lips twitching as she swore strongly inside her head.

"There haven't been any other exits guys, so I think the tree wants us to go down! Besides, once you go down, the only way to go is up!"

"Yeah, well I'm going up now," Cassandra snapped, eyes pinched at Eugene as she swung around and began to march back up the endless hill.

"After you," Rapunzel heard Eugene mutter, and responded with a huff and a sideways look at Lance, who of course, was not looking at anything of import, and was wandering up by Eugene whilst murmuring about the 'healing properties' that may reside in the plants, and 'merchant opportunities', whatever that meant.

Rapunzel's feet were sore for the first time in her short life, their soles - usually hard - now worn too thin, and she was fairly sure that they were blistered. The grooves of the path matched that of tree bark, and acted as sandpaper on her pale skin, yet she kept going. She kept moving. She had to reach the end, and she was fairly sure that 'the end' was not synonymous to 'the beginning'.

Or perhaps it was. That would be the kind of philosophical twist that their journey begged for and would in turn provide Rapunzel with the perfect excuse to go home, without running away from everything they'd strived for.

But, as the saying goes, some things are just too good to be true.

Rapunzel's hair flickered between grey and blonde - but only slightly, and only noticeable in the light - the aftereffects of their previous excursion held in the strands, and even more present in her eyes. She could feel them change, fade into black then burst back to green. It was like a film had come over her eyes, a film of destruction and chaos and horror.

But of course no one had noticed, and Rapunzel hadn't expected them to. They were blinded by petty rivalries, and in Lance's case, business opportunities. They had no idea the internal struggle that twisted and burned at Rapunzel's chest, the madness that had incurred inside her young brain every time someone was hurt on her behalf. Cassandra's hand, Eugene's heart, Lance's... bloodstream? Did spiders affect your blood, or was it only skin deep, Rapunzel wondered, the usual topsy-turvy path her brain took overwhelming her worry and settling her displeasure back down to the pits of her stomach. Perhaps it was the Sundrop, dormant and waiting, that had healed her thoughts. Or perhaps it was Rapunzel's ever impressive ability to overlook the negatives of life.

Perhaps they were one and the same.

"Okay... which way do we go now?" Rapunzel heard Lance ask from up ahead, and in response she bounded up to them, scraping the defeated expression of her face and replacing it with one that people were more familiar with: happy, naïve. Hopeful.

"Umm..." She answered, and that was all she could say on the matter. She was sure that there hadn't been a crossroads here when they'd crossed earlier.

Hadn't there?

"I don't recognise this," Cassandra observed, her voice taking a - recently unseen - tone of curiosity and worry.

"Yeah, well you aren't exactly the best at deciding on directions," Eugene quipped, and Rapunzel groaned internally.

Their arguments were getting worse and worse with every day they had been on the road, and ever since Adira had left them to the holds of the Great Tree, Cassandra especially had been rather nightmare inducing, in both her attitude and her manner. If it wasn't for her unbridled loyalty and their strong friendship, Rapunzel would be scared for her life every time that Cassandra swung her sword. But she was rather adept with it, so perhaps that was a normal reaction. She certainly wasn't scared of Cassandra, that would be preposterous.

"Oh, and you are?" Cassandra laughed coldly, gesturing with her sword over to Rapunzel - whose flinch was expected and was a result of caution, I mean, she was brandishing a dangerous weapon - and waving it expectantly, "how about you Raps. What does your destiny say?"

"Uh... maybe left?" Rapunzel theorised, and was thankful when Lance confirmed her lacklustre guess - I mean, it was a 50/50 chance of her getting it right - with an enthusiastic 'they always say to go left in mazes. One time...'

And then she tuned out, and they turned left down the dark path, that - both luckily and unfortunately - was turned upwards.

-

-

-

The Great Tree hummed as she watched the little Sundrop on her quest - fragile and futile as that quest may be - and chortled with genuine amusement when they turned left, of all directions. Straight upwards, or downwards would be a better way to turn than left. What a silly notion.

The Tree turned right, over to the side that was closest to the outside world, and watched as the world went past at great speed; he could barely make out that people were there before they moved on, and he watched as a little boy - his face grave with grief - was struck down, his body decaying into bones and rags with a velocity that would make Kronos himself worry. How would the precious, yet innocent, Sundrop react, she wondered.

And it was with that one thought that a plan hatched in the mind of the Great Tree, terribly impulsive as it may be.

What better way to break the Sundrop, than to leave her to a world where she had lost? Why trap her, when she would come willingly, begging and pleading for a chance to redo her future?

Her destiny.

And so, the Great Tree decided that left was the correct direction and watched with glorious and morbid anticipation as the Sundrop wandered unsuspecting into her prolonged - and most importantly, entertaining - doom.


End file.
